Being screwed over at Angkor by Kingston 4GB Elite Pro 45X

[nawin]

Dear Posters,

Just came back from Siem Reap today, extremely disappointed. I had purchased a Kingston 4GB Elite Pro 45X (the one with the chameleon on it) for my Canon 300D and was hoping to get some wonderful pictures of Angkor and Bayon. Which I did. I got close to about 500 shots before the compact flash card failed. There was around 600 plus shots or so remaining.

What happened was everytime when I tried to shoot, I get an image corrupted error and you could see the camera trying to find or read the image but it just drew a blank. The pictures I take after that would appear but then just slowly fade altogether. The display would show something like stripes then dissapear. I was also unable to view all my earlier photos that I took. The camera would be struggling to find the images (red light blinking) but nothing appears eventually. I tried deleting all the images that had been corrupted cos I thought that they might be jamming up the camera, but still I encountered the same problem.

I was fortunate to still have my trusty 1GB Hagiwara card and continued shooting, but the worry of losing all my precious images was haunting me for the rest my trip. Much of my concentration was affected too and I was really distracted by what had happened so far. I got back to the hotel to try the card again a couple of times but still the card did not display any images. I just got back home and fortunately I managed to recover my images! The thing which amazes me even more, is that the card now seems to be working. I think there must be some issues with consistency due to the inconsistent results I am getting. This is the first time that I am encountering such an issue, so i think there must be some problems with this card or some bad sectors somewhere.

The best thing was after I bought my card, I bumped into Nic from the Camera Workshop, he told me that this particular Kingston CF card had lots of problems but I was thinking how sway can you be right? First time you buy and then it crashes or hangs on you, highly unlikely right? absolutely wrong! It happened to me after my first 500 shots and I was hugely disappointed with the reliability of Kingston and would never purchase them anymore. Even my old regular 1GB Hagiwara lasted me without any problems and I was lucky I had it with me. I thought CF technology would have improved by now, how wrong i was with Kingson! I will try to go get it exchanged, but now it seems to be working so i don't know what to say to the guy in the store but i am convinced that the card is screwed. At best I will try to swap for some other brands. Even if they give me a new one, I will seriously have doubts about it's reliability, and not want to use it anymore.

Please beware of this product. Bring along a hard drive to store your pictures for insurance as well as other CF cards with you. Has any of you Club Snappers faced the same problems or do you think that I am just one of those "lucky" few who happened to strike "gold" at the first attempt? You comments are most welcome.

Thanks,

Nawin

 

[dan_1337]

I hope to never encounter this problem that you had.

I guess that the moral of the story would be to back up your pictures regularly on an external HD and hope that it also doesn't fail...or else what bad luck...

 

[longkangman]

Thanks for sharing your experience. That remind me to bring double backup just in case.

 

[nawin]

I have an x-drive pro but i didn't bring it along opting for a ligher outfit, but i thought CF cards are reliable nowadays compared to those in the past as my old Hagiwara never gave me any problems. I highly recommend backing up your data all the time. I was lucky this time, and i hope nobody will live to encounter this problem. Siem Reap was my dream holiday, a photographer's paradise, but it was nearly destroyed by a bad Kingson Elite Pro CF Card.

 

[TMC]

time to stick with other more reliable brands. Transcend should be good as well.

 

[dominator]

Are you sure the card is the root cause of your issue?
Maybe it is not due to kingston fault?
Can your camera support up to 4gb effectively?
Ever try the same card in same camera again and shot till above 500++ shots or 4gb and see the results?

 

[matt_lee]

Had been in the same situation. specially when using the same card on different bodies. did you format your card before every use? I find that one will encounter less problems when one do.

Another thing is dun get sucked into the convenience of the large capacitiy Cf cards. The max i would go is 2GB. small capacitiy cards are less likely to have problems especially the tried and tested ones already in the market for long. Just make sure you label them properly and get a padded holder for them.

Lastly, did you managed to recover the first 500 pics you shot? try runnnig your cf card thru recovery softwares such as rescue pro, you might be able to get it back.


matt
--------------------------------------------------------
www.leematai.com

 

[mrngbss]

Are you sure the card is the root cause of your issue?
Maybe it is not due to kingston fault?
Can your camera support up to 4gb effectively?
Ever try the same card in same camera again and shot till above 500++ shots or 4gb and see the results?

Pardon me, How do I find out if my camera supports higher capacity CF cards?

 

[nawin]

Hi,

So far, from what these links said that the card is supported:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kingston-Elite-Pro-memory-CompactFlash/dp/B000G700SE
http://www.mymemory.co.uk/compatible-memory/Digital_Cameras/Canon/Canon_EOS_300D
http://www.buyersedge.com/Product/prodDesc.asp?XOS=3956089&pageView=1
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=A0448320
http://www.arkdevices.com/product.php?productid=5731

with my Canon 300D. With regards to formatting, I always reformat my card for a fresh shoot. I did NOT use any image recovery software. Like I said before, the card just miraculously worked for no apparently reason just like it died for no apparent reason... But i could have used the additional 600 or so shots that it had if it did not die... i had to rely on my 1GB Hagiwara to do the rest, which is lame cos why would i get a high capacity card if i cannot use it?

Nawin

 

[lightning]

Okay, I got the same problem with my 1GB Kingston card, got back to convergent at Albert Complex, asked why such thing happen to the card. Their answer was if your camera batt is low and then when it tries to write to the card, the FAT32 table gets corrupted.

Anyway I still got my 1GB card replaced. So next time do remember to do more backup, and charged your Batt requlary!

 

[metallilan]

I haven't had any problems using my 2gb Kingston Ultimate... was wondering whether to get another 2gb as a spare card...:think:

 

[redstorm]

I also used the Kingston 4GB Elite Pro 45X CF card when I was on holiday in Austria recently and did not have any problem with the card. I guess you got a lemon which can happen to any products.

 

[nawin]

Battery wise. I was using a battery pack with 2 batteries on full charge. I also have a spare handy just in case. So i don't think it's the battery. Might be just a lemon... Ok i am not familiar about the local distributor here. Can somebody give me the address as well as contact number as well as any other additional information i would need to get this card replaced?

Thanks.

 

[Deadpoet]

Of course, there are manufacturer defects. However, majority of the corrputed files problem, as youhad described it, is not caused by manufacturer defects, but errors when files are written onto the card. If you do a recovery, all too often, you find only 1 file not recoverable.

Anyway, don't bash anyone manufacturer first. Go update your firmware, that usually solved the problems.

 

[ExplorerZ]

i use kingston SD 2gb/512mb, so far no problem still... even if i use it with a nearly dead battery(not even enough power to focus properly or at normal pace)

 

[photographique]

So, have you recovered, or the photos were still there?

 

[Tetrode]

Two words: 1) Backup
2) Sandisk

 

[jbma]

Two words: 1) Backup
2) Sandisk

Amen to that. Also try to use 4 x 1GB or 2 x 2 GB cards for safety. Never go for a shoot (holiday or otherwise) witn one card.

 

[zola70]

If I were you, I'll buy more of 1GB or 2GB CF card instead of 4GB or higher. Storing all the photos in 1 high capacity card is a risk.

If I'm going for a long trip tour, I would rather buy more lower capacity CF card and store the photos about ¾ full of the card capacity and then change card. It would be heart pain if store all the photos in 1 high capacity card and lost all of it if there's error on it.:angry: :cry:

 

[DeSwitch]

my 2 kingston 1Gb CF that came with my cam is working fine for over a year with more than 10K shots between them. Had been using 8Gb MD without issues too. Using high capacity is very convenient esp when you are shooting fast paced events, no time to change Cards man.

It all "Heng Suay" one.

Can anyone grantee that the most reliable brands wont have problems? The manufacturer only grantee a 1 to 1 exchange but they do not grantee that it wont fail during yr trip.

Hopefully TS is able to salvage yr precious photos. Pray for him guys.